Documenting Detroit’s Decline

March 24, 2011

There are many statistics emerging from the Census that dramatically document Detroit’s decline. My favorite, from the Changing Gears public radio project is this one: In 1950, Detroit had 1.8 million people, and about 200,000 were employed in manufacturing, more than one in 10. Today, 20,000 of Detroit’s remaining 714,000 people work in manufacturing, or about one in 50 residents.